Ubuntu Picks Upstart, KVM

derrida writes "Because the traditional System V init daemon (SysVinit) does not deal well with modern hardware, including hotplug devices, USB hard and flash drives, and network-mounted filesystems, Ubuntu replaced it with the upstart init daemon. Several other replacements for SysVinit are also available. One of the most prominent, initng, is available for Debian and runs on Ubuntu. Solaris uses SMF (Service Management Facility) and Mac OS uses launchd. Over time, Ubuntu will likely come to incorporate features of each of these systems into Upstart. Furthermore, heading in a different direction from its main rivals, Ubuntu Linux will use KVM as its primary virtualization software. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server both use the Xen virtualization software, a 'hypervisor' layer that lets multiple operating systems run on the same computer. In contrast, the KVM software runs on top of a version of Linux, the 'host' operating system that provides a foundation for other 'guest' operating systems to run in a virtual mode." Slashdot shares a corporate overlord with Linux.com.

News?

[webmaster404]

How is this news? The Ubuntu project came up with Upstart and therefore they are going to use it? Whats next Debian using apt-get rather then RPM?

A step away from compatibility between distros?

[beachdog]

When I moved from Red Hat to Debian (remember Bruce Peren's UserLinux ?) and to Ubuntu the thing I missed was the clarity of SysV init and the simple tools to add and remove programs from a runlevel.

The article quoted shows examples of upstart scripts. I don't quite see if compatibility with SysV init is a goal of upstart.

It sure would be nice if upstart means easier application sharing between Red Hat and Ubuntu.

Re:KVM less of a surprise than you might think...

[Anonymous Coward]

KVM is better than Xen in the opinion of the kernel maintainers. Therefore, KVM will be (already is) available in the stock Linux kernel, and all distros that use any recent-ish kernel. KVM will be available pretty much everywhere by default, and requires very little in the way of distro support - a couple of simple userland apps will handle everything, and they don't even need root access to work.

Once KVM has the remaining kinks worked out of it, it'll be everywhere (on Linux at least) by default, and will be trivial to use.

Re:KVM less of a surprise than you might think...

[gbjbaanb]

Well, if it gets some decent userspace tools to manage the host and guests, then yes KVM could well become a decent 'standard' though it will not oust Xen as Xen already has enough support in the marketplace to ensure its survival (unless, of course, Xen proves to be a poor performer or unstable)(I've heard reports of both).

The things to make people really think KVM is the best is a web-style gui to manage start/stop, guest settings etc, and stats on what all the guests are doing in semi/realtime.